EFFICACY OF A “CONTACT CENTER-BASED COMMUNICATION” IN OPTIMIZING THE CARE OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES

Abstract BACKGROUND Telephone helplines are a useful vehicle for the management of chronic diseases even though data on how these can ease management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is still scarce. AIM: to analyze our two-years’ experience with the first telephone helpline dedicated to IBD in Italy. METHODS The main outcomes of using a contact center (CC) at our Unit were analyzed; all data was prospectively collected. Patients’ requests were classified into medical or non-medical. The percentage of hospitalized patients in the pre-CC period was compared to that after CC activation, to assess the potential clinical gain of using CC. The calls were divided into 5 categories to evaluate a potential correlation between patients’ number of calls and risk of hospitalization. RESULTS The CC received 11.080 calls and handled 11.972 requests. In particular, 63% of patients phoned monthly for a medical consultation, and 37% called for non-medical reasons. In 2012, the followed-up patients were 1.658 with 230 IBD-caused hospitalizations (14%); in 2014, the followed-up patients were 1.962 with 182 hospitalizations (9%) ( p 30 calls ( p